Research Spotlight: Expanding Access to Genetic Testing for Cancer
Early in her training, Kari Ring, MD, developed a passion for working with patients at high risk for hereditary cancers. Today, she leads UVA Health's hereditary cancer program. As a researcher, she works to improve access to genetic testing for hereditary cancer syndromes and understand how patients navigate long-term screening and prevention. She shares more about her work in this video and Q&A.
Kari Ring, MD, shares insights on cancer genetics
Kari Ring, MD: The world of cancer genetics has exploded in the last decade and we have learned so much about ways to help prevent cancer for patients and learning how to do that better for patients. And new ways to do that for patients is really exciting.
My name is Kari Ring. I am a gyn-oncologist here at the University of Virginia. I'm also Director of the High Risk Breast and Ovarian Cancer Clinic, as well as our subspecialty lead for our mini clinics. In a nutshell, what I do in my job in the high risk clinic is I take care of patients who have a family history of cancer or have a mutation in their DNA that puts them at risk for cancer.
I help develop screening protocols for them, as well as risk reduction options to help prevent cancer for them.
Really, the understanding of genomics and genetics is the future of preventing cancer and taking care of cancer and the ability to have the Manning Institute to integrate genomics and genetics with our prevention and care options is really going to be practice changing for everyone here at the University of Virginia.
What are you working on right now?
My research focuses on access to genetic testing for hereditary cancer syndromes and patient-reported outcomes related to screening compliance, screening fatigue, and quality of life.
What are the most intriguing potential clinical applications of your work?
We are evaluating a chatbot that can take patients through the genetic counseling that is usually done in person with a genetic counselor before genetic testing in a currently enrolling clinical trial.
There is a nationwide shortage of genetic counselors and many areas in Virginia, most notably geographically underserved populations, do not have access to genetic counselors. Utilizing technology such as a chatbot has the potential to allow access to genetic counseling and testing to a broader patient population.
Identifying patients at an increased risk of cancer through genetic testing then allows us to employ evidence-based cancer screening and risk reduction techniques.
What do you wish more people knew about your area of research?
The knowledge around cancer genetics has exploded over the past 10-15 years, which is so exciting as a clinician researcher interested in genetics. However, there are still so many unanswered questions ranging from who qualifies for genetic testing, access to genetic testing, what are the exact cancer risks with each gene, and how to manage patients at an increased risk for cancer to help prevent cancer but not impact other health consequences, and finally how to apply new technology in the prevention setting.
What made you choose UVA Health as the place to do your research?
All of my clinical work and research in hereditary cancer requires a multidisciplinary team approach and the cross-department and cross-campus collaboration at UVA is unmatched.
